Product Reviews

#FancyLadyThings: Christian Louboutin Goldissima Gloss

November 8th, 2017 by Karen 10 Comments

In #FancyLadyThings Land, it’s perfectly acceptable for you — in fact, you’re encouraged — to carry a sheer $85 nude peachy golden gloss in your Goyard Bag.

Christian Louboutin’s limited edition six-piece Metalinudes Loubilaque Lip Lacquer in Goldissima came out with a six-piece shimmery metallic collection last summer that included three $85 Lip Lacquers (also known as “glosses”) and three $50 nail polishes. Even though Goldissima was a summer launch, it’s wearable all year long, ESPECIALLY if you’re heading to Bali for the holidays this year. So YAY FOR THAT. 🙂

Oh, it’s also still available at counters and online.

Every #FancyLady needs at least one luxe lip gloss in her collection, and while a nude $85 golden peachy pink gloss would be cray-cray in the regular word, in #FancyLadyThings Land, this one is pretty fabulous.

It’s comfy, non-sticky and moisturizing, and there isn’t any grit whatsoever in the golden pearl, which is so key at any budget, right?

Even though Goldissima doesn’t feel sticky, the formula is on the thicker side. I’d say it’s even thicker than a MAC Lipglass. It stays practically glued to your lips. I get about three hours if I’m wearing it on its own or four hours on top of a lip liner.

The gloss is indubitably high quality, but you’re clearly also paying for the name — Christian Louboutin, maker of those famously expensive red-soled shoes — and the fancy packaging. Louboutin “presents” Goldissima in a huge black box stamped with the logo and lined in velvet on the inside, and the gloss tube is covered in a pattern reminiscent of mermaid scales…

[Continue reading…]

Look Book: A MAC Snow Ball Kit Makeup Look With Smokin’ Shimmery Taupe Lids

November 7th, 2017 by Karen 3 Comments

mac snow ball eye bag smoky gold — Wearing the MAC Snow Ball Eye Bag in Smoky Gold from the MAC holiday collection.

Look Book! This is the first in a new series of makeup look posts I’ll be doing that will be kind of like faces of the day, which are like, “Here, look at my makeup,” except not. They’ll be open spaces to try different makeup looks, because I’ve been in a rut for the past two years, and I want to get out of it. Sometimes I’ll get into technique. Sometimes there will be quick commentary on the products. Fun things like that.

I totally went into this look thinking I’d do something outside my comfort zone, and I even gave myself one of those pre-game pep talks, like “Karen, you’re going to push yourself! You’re going to do something cray!” — but I still ended up totally staying in my lane with these smoky taupe lids and glossy nude lips.

LE. SIGH. I don’t even know why I fight it… I end up doing these subtle smoky looks like 99% of the time, all the time now. It’s my wheelhouse, man!

mac snow ball mini lip gloss kit — Glossy nude lips with a sprinkle of sparkle

[Continue reading…]

Rita Hazan True Color Shampoo, Color Gloss and Hydrating Conditioner

November 7th, 2017 by Karen 4 Comments

Rita Hazan is arguably the queen of celebrity hair color. She does Beyonce’s hair, J. Lo’s hair, Jessica Simpson’s hair… Need I say more? She’s unarguably the queen of my roots! I’ve bought her Root Touch Up Concealer more times than I’d like to count during more Sephora VIB sales than I’d like to admit. It’s one of my ride-or-dies.

I didn’t know until recently that she also has a small hair care line with shampoo, conditioner, hair glosses (they add shine and temporary color) and a couple of hair treatments, and everything’s focused on retaining and maintaining color in color-treated hair.

Being the scent junkie that I am, I immediately went into horizontal fainting couch mode after I started using her True Color Shampoo ($26), Ultimate Color Gloss in Brown ($26) and True Color Hydrating Conditioner ($26), because everything smells exactly like Estée Lauder’s Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia, also known as “my Hawaiian gardenia floral fantasy come true,” and that scent lingers in my locks for days.

I’ve been using all three products for about a month now, starting immediately after the last time my friend Alis colored my hair, and my mane has remained really dark and shiny. I love it.

[Continue reading…]

MAC Snow Ball Eye Compact/Gold

November 6th, 2017 by Karen 11 Comments

I learned two shocking factoids — absolutely shocking! — related to vision and eyes in the last week, and the first is that you’re supposed to replace your contact lens cases every three months in order to avoid getting an eye-borne bacterial infection (I saw it in a random video about contacts that someone posted on Facebook).

Were you already aware of this? Because I had no idea. Apparently, I’m disgusting, because I usually keep my cases until I lose a cap, OMG!

Also mind blowing: the MAC Snow Ball Eye Compacts, ’cause they’re shockingly good.

Unlike the majority of the MAC holiday palettes I’ve seen over the past something-number of years, most of which have been passable, but not really memorable, the two in this year’s Snow Ball holiday collection are downright memorably great.

The first is called Rose Gold, and it’s my favorite of the two, but the other one, Gold, is no slouch either. I just think it’s maybe a smidgen less epic than Rose Gold…but we’ll come back to that in two swishes of a tabby’s tail.

Either way, with both of them, the quality is there, and I’m all for it!

Like the Rose Gold Compact, the Gold one is $29.50 and comes with six powder eyeshadows. Two of the shadows are flashy, glittery Dazzleshadows (there’s a white gold and a yellow gold), and other four are powder shadows in MAC’s regular eyeshadow formula (a satiny nude peach; a mid-tone satiny brown; a matte charcoal; and a sparkly, glittery grayish black that isn’t quite as sparkly as the two Dazzleshadows).

[Continue reading…]

#FancyLadyThings: Oribe Côte d’Azur Polishing Body Scrub

November 3rd, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

oribe body scrub — Oribe Côte d’Azur Polishing Body Scrub ($65 for a 6.8-oz. jar)

Hey, so I’ve been walking around for the past few days smelling like I summer at the family beach house and winter at the chalet (both untrue), and both houses in this scenario, BTW, are mansions (of course). Both have also been in the family for generations (ridiculous), and this is entirely because I’ve been using a fancy-schmancy body scrub, of all things!

Oribe Côte d’Azur Polishing Body Scrub is $65 for a 6.8-oz. jar, which is crazy bad for a budget, but hey, this is #fancyladythings. If I were a lady who lunched in Chanel suits and pearls, I’d keep a jar of it in my bathroom on the regular, no doubt.

#FancyLadyThings is a scandalous (not really) new series where we’ll talk about old money, family intrigue and fancy, high-end beauty products… Or, at least the latter.

You might be familiar with Oribe. They’re a hair care line known for their expensive and high quality products (I like their Foundation Mist, Dry Texturizing Spray and their Root Touch Up Spray), all of which come in very perfume-like scents.

To me, everything they make smells like it was envisioned by a world-renowned Paris perfumer who caters to royalty and Rockefellers.

Côte d’Azur has notes of jasmine, bergamot and sandalwood, so it’s bright and summery. Those are the official notes. The unofficial note — the only one! — is old money.

It’s a sugar scrub made of fine sugar, so when I rub it on my skin, it feels soft, not sandpapery at all, and, after I rinse it off, there’s a thin layer of moisturizing oil left behind, as well as a scent that lingers — I’m not kidding — for at least a day.

Not to say that it’s a potent or obnoxious scent. It’s just VERY long lasting. After I dry myself off, I can smell it on my towels, on my robe, on my clothes, and I’m assuming that if you keep a boy toy around for kicks, you’d probably smell it on him, too, after you smothered him with your naked bod (!).

[Continue reading…]

MAC Unsung Heroes: MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation

November 2nd, 2017 by Karen 17 Comments

mac studio fix fluid foundation nc42 — I’ve had a love affair with this foundation for almost 10 years now.

Chances are, if we bumped into each other at — UGH! — The X in San Francisco in the late ’90s or early aughts (it was a place Jen and I used to go clubbing, and in retrospect it was pretty gross), I was wearing MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation ($29) on my face and partying all night long.

Studio Fix Fluid is one of those foundations that you can put on your face, and you know that no matter what you’re doing — dancing, sweating, making out with strangers (um, not that I did that), dancing in cages (not that I did that either!) — you know, that Studio Fix will keep going and going and going and going.

A medium-coverage matte liquid foundation, Studio Fix is one of my two all-time fave MAC foundations (the other one is Face and Body). You can easily ramp up the coverage to full by using additional layers, but I wouldn’t use more than two or three, because you can completely mask red areas and pigmentation spots with just two layers, I’m not kidding, and if you go beyond three, it starts to look cake face-y.

Of all the MAC liquid foundations, I think Studio Fix is the best at controlling oil. It sucks it all up! I can really tell when I’m looking between my eyebrows, which is the oiliest area on my face. I don’t see any shiny spots there when I use Studio Fix. It completely obliterates oil without drying out my combo skin.

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

It’s also extremely long-wearing. Like, my club days are so far behind me, so I’m not wearing Studio Fix all night long anymore, LOL! I do wear it all day long now, though, and I know that I can wake up at the crack of dawn, put this on, and when I take off my makeup at night, my foundation will look just as fresh as it did that morning.

[Continue reading…]

MAC Snow Ball Eye Compact/Rose Gold

November 1st, 2017 by Karen 7 Comments

In the case of the MAC Snow Ball Eye Compact/Rose Gold ($29.50), a whole lotta “no’s” equal one big YES.

First time I used this palette, I was simply blown away. There was no fallout, so no cleaning up afterward. And no layering! — which, you know, with MAC LE eye palettes, is shocking, because they aren’t usually as pigmented as the permanent collection eyeshadows, but these are potently punchy.

So, basically, no drama. None! I think this is — yes, I’m going to totally go there — the best LE holiday eye palette MAC has done in years.

mac snow ball eye compact rose gold eye closeup — I’m wearing No Curfew in my crease, Budding Passion and Shiver of Delight on my lids, Drama in the Show on my lash lines, and Winterlude as a highlight

[Continue reading…]

Introducing the MAC Velvet Matte Lipstick Collection

October 31st, 2017 by Karen 6 Comments

Sometimes velvet finishes can go really wrong, you know, like the red Pier 1 pillows that I ordered online for my couch. I returned them the same day they arrived because they looked a little too shiny — almost sleazy, like a threadbare velvet robe in a motel room with a heart-shaped waterbed.

Yep.

But when velvet goes right, it goes really right. It’s luxurious, rich and sophisticated, like the new $17.50 MAC Velvet Matte Lipsticks.

Dude! They totally get it right. They’re an example of when velvet goes really right.

New on counters now, the MAC Velvet Matte Lipstick Collection contains nine deep, dark reds, browns, purples and grays, all with blackened, moody tones that are perfect for fall.

A dark lipstick can be tricky, though, and not just on a technical level, in that you have to bust out a lip liner and a lip brush, but there are a couple things you can do to work them well. Like, the best ones get the formula and finish juuuust right, whereas the less-than-best ones can leave you with a patchy mess that looks like you got your lipstick at Party City in the Halloween section.

So, you can either end up looking super trendy, or super tacky, and I know this because I’ve danced on the tacky side… Not on purpose, though!

[Continue reading…]